Step back and think about what your thinking looks like to your students.
If you’re like many knowledgeable educators it may not look like thinking at all. In fact, it might appear to students that you just magically have the answers and insights they are struggling to reach.
In reality we know just like our students, educators struggle through thinking about complex ideas, making sophisticated connections and figuring out complicated problems – the first time we do it.
Often, however, that first time (and rightly so) isn’t in front of students. It’s during our planning period or at home or with our colleagues. We want to make sure we know what we are talking about before we present it to students and that is definitely a good thing.
The difficulty comes when we leave out our thinking process when we present these ideas, connections and answers to students. Doing so deprives students of an authentic model of the type of thinking that results in the product we are sharing.
So this week try this: show students your thinking in all its messy glory. Think aloud and you put your full process on display. What questions did you ask yourself? What false starts did you make? What mistakes helped you to get to end result?
Show off your struggle.